


PJG-92T

by Cesare, kisahawklin



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Drabble, Drabble Sequence, Gen, Off-World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-03
Updated: 2011-04-03
Packaged: 2017-10-17 12:05:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/176681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cesare/pseuds/Cesare, https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/pseuds/kisahawklin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"They require all visitors to only speak one hundred words at a time."</p>
            </blockquote>





	PJG-92T

**Author's Note:**

> For the Atlantis Big Bang [drabble tree](http://community.livejournal.com/atlantisbigbang/20757.html).

[ ](http://cesare.dreamwidth.org/profile) [ **cesare** ](http://cesare.dreamwidth.org/)

"PJG-92T has a ZPM," Rodney said.

"I know this world," said Teyla. "A visit may present difficulties."

"What kind?" asked Ronon.

"They require all visitors to only speak one hundred words at a time."

"Easy," Sheppard said. "We gag Rodney, we're good to go."

"Hey!"

"No; everyone must speak exactly one hundred words."

Sheppard slumped. "Maybe Lorne's team can get this one."

Ronon saved the day. "Learned to count words automatically as an apprentice poet," he explained, and he hit the mark perfectly every time.

Though he tended to fill out the last forty or so words with recipes.

[ ](http://kisahawklin.dreamwidth.org/profile) [ **kisahawklin** ](http://kisahawklin.dreamwidth.org/)

They worked out a system where Ronon would signal how many words they had left. Rodney, of course, wanted to count his own, and this had the miraculous effect of slowing him down enough to edit himself before words came out of his mouth.

Teyla tended to go long, so Ronon gave her countdowns from word fifteen or so. She only left her sentence hanging twice before she got the hang of it.

Of course John never had more than three words to say, so he always had to end with recipes.

"Preheat the oven to three hundred fifty degrees…"

[ ](http://kisahawklin.dreamwidth.org/profile) [ **kisahawklin** ](http://kisahawklin.dreamwidth.org/)

By the end of the day, Rodney and Teyla were only speaking when they couldn't avoid it and John and Ronon had worked out most of a sign language system so he stayed mostly silent. He only knew two recipes, so he switched to reciting anything he'd memorized, from the Declaration of Independence to the slings and arrows speech from Hamlet.

Ronon carried the conversation beautifully, and after an hour of practice, he hardly needed to fill in any words at all. When they left, the elders kissed Ronon on both cheeks and invited him back for their poetry jam.


End file.
